VR hasn’t become the success CCP was hoping for apparently and it’s closing down 2 studios related to VR development. The timing is a little odd, in september there was still a presentation for Valkyrie at Eve Vegas.
The press statement also stated that ‘Eve development won’t be affected by this lay off’. But strangely enough even CCP_Logibro, a name even I recognize is laid off as well. He might be a community manager, who probably isn’t typing C++ every day, but to say Eve is not effected when 100 of your 350 employees are fired is a little odd.
Does VR still have a future ? The uptake is very low if we have to believe the Steam hardware survey (0,12 % with the oculus rift being the most popular). The price and the need to have a good video card doesn’t exactly help. Furthermore I believe that most people don’t really want to be lost in a game, completely shut off from your environment. Also the heavy device on your head doesn’t look very comfortable to me. Anyway, we’ll see what the future brings, don’t think VR is my cup of tea, but maybe I am just getting old ;).
Links :
- https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/10/30/ccp-closing-vr-studios/
- https://forums.eveonline.com/t/ccp-lays-of-dozens-and-closes-vr-department/35228
- http://evenews24.com/2017/10/30/ccp-games-vr-development-put-on-hold-dozens-laid-off/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/79p514/ccp_logibro_leaves_ccp/
- http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-11-02-vr-devs-react-to-ccp-exit-vr-is-not-dead